UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Sinfree Makoni, associate professor of applied linguistics and African studies in Penn State's College of the Liberal Arts, and extraordinary professor at North-West University, South Africa, has received the Advanced Humanities Fellowship from the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). Headquartered in Dakar, Senegal, CODESRIA is widely recognized as the pioneer African social research organization as well as the non-governmental center of social knowledge production on the African continent.
Makoni’s project, titled “Southern Multilingualisms: Towards a Decolonization of African Sociolinguistics,” sets out to address the underlying notion of language in southern multilingualisms from philosophical and ethnographical perspectives. It is a continuation of Makoni’s pioneering work that draws on indigenous philosophies and revolves around analyzing informal exchanges in street markets in Ghana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and other African countries.
Born in Zimbabwe, Makoni studied in Ghana for his junior degree. He said his interest in language arose at an early age.
“I couldn’t understand why I could pass some courses in English, but I couldn’t pass courses in my first language,” he said. Makoni’s first language is Shona, but he also learned English as a boy. “I thought there was either something wrong with me or something wrong with the language itself.”
Thankfully for the discipline, Makoni concluded the latter.
“When you ask ‘How many languages do you speak?’ you are applying a mental framework,” he explained. “It was that clash that became the source of my own discontent with how linguistics is practiced. I have spent my career trying to work out the implications of this particular position. What other forms of language exist? What if there are other manifestations of language that we are not yet fully aware of? What underlying notions of languages and communications do indigenous people have in the way they communicate?”
Makoni’s interest led him to the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he earned a doctorate in applied linguistics, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan. While his initial research focused on the impact of old age and memory loss on language, he became increasingly interested in the intersection between language and politics — something he would never have been able to explore had he remained in Africa.
“I drifted away from [the research on aging and language] but couldn’t find a way of articulating my two areas of interest,” he said. “But by being away from Africa, I found the space to begin a project on the interface of language, multilingualism, and politics.”
Makoni joined the Penn State faculty in 2003. Noting that his dual appointment in applied linguistics and African studies is a distinct advantage for him, he said Penn State gave him the flexibility to explore his interests in any way he chose.
“At Penn State, I wasn’t under pressure to conform to the political pressures of how the discipline of applied linguistics was framed,” he explained. “Now, by being outside of Africa, I can see the bigger picture of what’s happening there because I am grounded here.”
Cheryl Sterling, associate professor of English and director of the African Studies program, said, “Professor Makoni’s work has changed the field of applied linguistics. He is considered one of the top African linguists in the world, and the bevy of scholars who line up to work and study with him more than attest to that. Yet, he always finds the time to do the nitty-gritty work for the program and be a great mentor to the students. African Studies and Penn State are lucky to have a professor who embodies this amazing combination of research, service and teaching excellence.”
Makoni is a prolific scholar whose portfolio includes 14 books (six edited), 77 refereed journal articles, and 42 book chapters. His journal publications are found in the best venues in linguistics and applied linguistics, and he has received best paper awards from the Association of Communication Research and the Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology. He has served on the editorial boards of 17 journals and was recently nominated to be associate editor to Applied Linguistics, the discipline’s top-tier journal. In addition to his recent CODESRIA fellowship, he was named an African Diaspora Carnegie Fellow in 2019 and 2020 respectively —a fellowship that links African scholars with higher education institutions in Africa.
Makoni said he is extremely pleased to have been awarded the CODESRIA Fellowship.
“CODESRIA is very prestigious,” he said. “When they award you a fellowship, it is something to be very proud of.”
Ultimately, Makoni believes the CODESRIA Fellowship will allow him to be a better mentor to his graduate students.
“I think of my students as my interlocutors, and I regard them as my colleagues,” he said. “We discuss. We debate. We talk about their work and about my work. As I struggle with my own ideas, they see how one’s ideas develop and how one’s career develops. Through these interactions, they will develop their own ideas.”